


Love Is A... Funny Kinda Thing

by TheDeep



Category: Red Dead Redemption
Genre: F/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-22
Updated: 2014-03-07
Packaged: 2018-01-13 10:54:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1223641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDeep/pseuds/TheDeep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The apocalypse ravages the land, and leaves two close friends very much without families. They know they can't go back... but they don't know if they can go forward, either. Turning to each other, they finally determine that they must ride together in order to try to find the cure to the apocalypse and maybe... And maybe to find a future for themselves as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Regretting Losses

**Author's Note:**

> The first chapter of this story is taken very much right out of 'Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare' survivor mission 'Paternal Pride.' I use that survivor mission in order to set up the story, but the content of the game and everything else in relation to it, belongs to the rightful creators of the game, not myself.

"First hell walks the Earth, and you turn up! Could my week get any worse?" She almost ran off the porch straight towards him and into his arms, putting her own around his neck.

"Nice to see you, too, Bonnie!" He said, taken only by a little bit of surprise.

"I thought you'd be dead!" Bonnie continued, her head against his shoulder with her eyes closed - just praying that, in one way or another, that this crazy hell was just an extremely realistic nightmare, "I heard things were bad in West Elizabeth."  
  
"Sure," John confirmed for her as she let him go and he stepped back in a similar gesture as a small laugh escaped his lips, "But it'll take more than an apocalypse to take me down."  
  
Bonnie looked at him for a moment. "What are you? A Demon or a cockroach?" she asked.  
  
John shrugged a bit. "Both, I fear." He paused for a brief second before asking, "How's your father?"  
  
Bonnie hesitated, and John was almost tempted to believe he knew why. "Fine and dandy," she said finally, "He should be comin' out of that barn any minute now," she added as she took a few steps towards the barn. "Daddy!" she yelled, looking towards the old barn.  
  
John took a step after her, "What's he doin' in the barn?" he asked, following her line of sight.  
  
"Daddy, John's here!" Bonnie yelled, not immediately answering his question. She didn't want to believe what her mind was telling her. With all of those undead creatures roaming around, eating and killing people, the possibility was one that was highly likely, but was also one that she feared would tear her apart. "Mr. Marston, you remember... that... idiot bounty hunter," she yelled again, her voice a little weaker this time. She was praying... She didn't want to believe it possible.  _Good God, please... If there is a God in this hell on Earth anymore..._  
  
John stood silently behind her for a few seconds longer before he tried again, "What was he doing in the barn?"  
  
"Just... roundin' up the undead and keepin' 'em safe so the rest of us can go about our business," Bonnie replied. She didn't look back at John, her eyes still fixed on the barn. She swallowed her fear, as she had no other name for the emotion she felt, as best as she could. "He's a real man," she began again after a moment, "He's probably... playin' around with 'em!" Her voice lacked conviction in her words, or a lot of it, at least. "Daddy, stop teasin' me! So, come on, now!"  
  
John searched the area around the barn doors for any sign of Drew MacFarlane, but he was still failing to find proof to disprove his belief, and admittedly, regretted fear, that Bonnie's father wouldn't be walking through them... In any kind of alive and healthy state, anyways. With a hint of regret evident in his words, he finally broke the question that had troubled him, "How long's he been in there?"  
  
Bonnie shook her head just slightly, "Not long." She lowered her head, finally coming to accept the idea of the probability that she wouldn't be seeing her father again. "Only since... Yesterday," she added, finally looking back at John.  
  
"Yesterday?" he asked, shaking his own head a bit as his gaze shifted to Bonnie. "I better go have a look for him." It was against all reason, but... he owed it and a lot more to Bonnie for her and her father's help when he'd first showed up in New Austin.  
  
"Would you, John?" she asked, looking over at him with just a soft hint of sadness in her voice. It was far from the tone she'd first used with him on their original meeting at the very ranch they now stood on. "You are kind... Call out to me if you... find anything," she said quietly.  
  
John nodded. "Will do," he said as Bonnie turned back for the house and he turned his attention back to the barn.  
  
It only took him a few minutes to confirm his fears with a few shots from his Repeater Carbine. With a heavy sigh, he put the firearm back in its place in the holster on his back before he walked out of the barn doors and back for the house to find Bonnie sitting rather stiffly with her rifle across her lap. She looked up when he stopped in the path just in front of the porch and John bowed his head, not able to find the words to explain.  
  
Having stood when she saw him, she closed her eyes and sat down on the chair on the porch again, her own head bowed. John slowly joined her, not liking what he'd just done, but knowing that there was a hell of a lot of things he'd change had he the chance to do so. This apocalypse thing just wasn't fairing well for any of them.  
  
"Well, John... You always do bring sunshine to my life," Bonnie said in a weak attempt to find some kind of humor to take her mind off the confirmation the former bounty hunter had given her.  
  
"I'm sorry about your father," John said, taking a seat on the chair beside her with a soft sigh. Bonnie didn't miss the conflicted emotions that seemed very clear in his eyes - a bit of a rare thing for him, or so she thought.  
  
Bonnie finally looked over at him. "I'd like to say he died doin' what he loved... but he never was one for eatin' folk,... slattherin' at the lips and howlin' at the moon." She took a deep breath, "I guess I'll... content myself with sayin' that he... died protectin' those he loved."  
  
John nodded. "Indeed."  
  
Bonnie was silent for a few moments longer as John looked out to the ranch visible from where they sat on the porch. "Well... how's your family, John? Your... wife, Abigail, and your son?"  
  
There was the question he wasn't prepared to answer, or face, for that matter. He looked down to the wooden planks under their feet as he struggled to fight the emotions that threatened to really hurt him if he didn't get a proper handle on them soon. "Gone...," he said softly, shaking his head, unable to look back up at Bonnie.  
  
Bonnie stared at him in shock for a few moments, her mouth open as she struggled to find the words to comfort him that she didn't have. "Oh, John...," she murmured. One of her hands came off the rifle she still had on her lap to rest in what she meant to be a comforting manner on his shoulder.  
  
John raised his head, clearing his throat roughly and nodding a bit as if to confirm something for himself, and maybe even her as well. "Luck is not something generally on my side, Bonnie," he said, his voice still quiet.  
  
It was such an unusual tone for him. She was familiar with the bounty hunter in him that had come to New Austin to hunt down and kill his former gang members to save his family, but now... they, neither of them, really had family.  
  
"You wanna stay for a spell?" she asked quietly, looking over at him. "I'd really hate to let those undead half-wit savages get to you, too."  
  
John looked over at her, nodding a bit and still struggling to wrangle those raw emotions he hadn't even gotten rid of on the somewhat long ride out to the ranch in Hennigan's Stead from his own ranch in Beecher's Hope. "I'd reason that that's a mighty fine idea, Bonnie."  
  
The blonde nodded and then stood, holding her free hand out to him with her other still with a hold on her rifle. "C'mon then, John. Let's... go talk about this... over a few drinks."  
  
John looked up at her, in the midst of his grief and regret, unable to find any kind of reaction to her words other than taking her hand as he stood and gave her a small nod. "Let's do that."


	2. Together, Riding Hell's Creations

Bonnie sat beside John, her head rested on his shoulder as she leaned into him. Both of them were silent, their own thoughts not too different from one another's. It was late... They should probably retire to the rooms for the night sometime soon.  
  
"I'm not going to stay long tomorrow," John said finally with a soft sigh. "There's gotta be some way to cure this act of hell."  
  
"Where are you gonna go, John?" Bonnie asked, raising her head so she could look at him. It was only that look in her eyes that told John that she wasn't going to be letting him leave alone, no matter what it took.  
  
"Bonnie... No," he said, shaking his head. "You'll be safe here at the ranch."  
  
"And what about you, John?" Bonnie asked. "Two guns are better than one."  
  
John looked over at her, sighing. "No arguin' with a woman," he muttered, shaking his head. "You'll ride with me?"  
  
Bonnie nodded. "Of course I will. We'll leave tomorrow morning?"  
  
John nodded. "I've gotta hunt down Seth and West-Dickens. Folks are blaming them and just about everything else in this world," he said.  
  
"That crazy grave-robbing fool and his glass eye?" Bonnie asked with a disproving frown. "He's about as stupid as a pile of cow patties, Mr. Marston."  
  
John held his hands up. "Yes, I'm aware of that," he said with a sigh, clearly not liking the idea of it either, "But I've gotta see if he's got an idea one what hell has released upon this land. It's better than nothing."  
  
Bonnie frowned a little more. "Alright. We'll see what we can figure out in the morning. In the meantime, let's find us a place to sleep for the night."  
  
John nodded, "Lead the way."

  
**The Next Morning...**  
 

"What the hell is this?" Bonnie asked as she watched John pull himself into the saddle on a two-toned horse. Dark in the front, and a pale, ghostly white in the rear, the horse trailed a gray cloud of what she could only call fog behind him and looked at her with dark eyes that lacked any tone of color.

John looked down at her. "I haven't a damn clue," he said. "Nature's fucked up, Ms. MacFarlane. Hell walks the Earth, and with it... These freaks show up! I haven't seen an alive horse in days!" He nodded to a blood-red horse standing near his own - it's mane, tail, and hooves alive with flames. "I believe that one's waiting for you."

Bonnie gave him a long look before she took a few steps towards the flaming horse, making the horse look over at her before trotting over to her like a loyal mount. "Good God," she breathed, carefully taking the reins and easing herself into the saddle on the horse, "Hell is indeed on Earth."

John nodded. "No time to worry over it. Hopefully we can find someone with a clue about what the hell is going on!"

With that, they set out from the ranch to the Old Bacchus Place to look firstly for Seth.

The first good stretch of the ride was carried out in mostly in silence before Bonnie looked over at John. He was awfully quiet. "Where did you find these creatures, anyways?" she asked.

John looked over at her as they continued to gallop their strange steeds along the trail. "God only knows where they came from, but I found 'em out near the Plains. Even the God-damn wolves got this infection in 'em! Took my horse down near the edge of the Plains," he explained, turning his attention back to the trail ahead.

Bonnie nodded. "There isn't a critter around that don't have this awful thing from hell!"

John nodded in agreement. "Hopefully, and God willing, we can find a cure for this God-forsaken infection!"

She couldn't agree more. "John... Can I ask you something?"

He looked back over at her. "Sure. What's on your mind, Bonnie?"

Bonnie took a deep breath, wondering if it was even a good idea to ask what she was thinking about asking. "What happened... exactly? To your family?"

John sighed and slowed his horse to a quick canter, Bonnie doing the same so they could still ride alongside each other. "I went back to the ranch after runnin' a few errands. I figured somethin' was up, but... Abigail waved it off as the storm when I got home. Turn around twice and Uncle finally came in with that damned old crazy infection. He got to Abigail before I shot him and then Abigail got Jack. Next thing I know, I'm on the menu and I knew I couldn't get to my lasso in time," he explained, his gaze conflicted with a knowledge that he'd only done what would keep him alive and a deep regret for having to pull the trigger on the two people he'd set foot in New Austin to originally save. And then this happened...

"What's done is done," he said finally with a firm shake of his head. Bonnie knew he was only trying, and very evidently failing, to convince himself just as much as her that he hadn't done anything wrong and he couldn't have done anything. "I can't change it, but hopefully there's a way to stop it."

Bonnie looked down at her hands, rested against the horse's neck and amazingly not burned by the flames. Why? 'Why the hell not' seemed to be an answer that was common nowadays. "I'm so sorry, John..."

"It's not your fault," John told her, looking over at her. She thought she saw something else in his eyes that time - something she could feel in her heart as well. "I just wanna say thanks for doin' this with me. I... I can honestly say I don't know if I'd be able to do it otherwise."

Bonnie shook her head to wave off the thanks. "Don't you go too soft on me, Mr. Marston. We've still got a world to fix," she said, her voice a little firm, only to keep herself focused. Now was not the time to let herself do that... or him, for that matter.

A small smile pulled at the corner's of John's mouth. "Then what the hell are we doin' ridin' like this?"

Bonnie managed a smile at the humor he put to his words. Thankfully,  he still seemed to know it wasn't the time. That saved Bonnie the trouble. But... she didn't know if she wanted to save herself from the trouble of the man she now rode with... It was something to be seen played out yet.  _With time,_  she told herself. "You still think you can beat me, John?"

"I did it once, didn't I?" John asked. "But, seeing as this  _is_  the apocalypse, I advise we stick together."

Bonnie nodded. "Fair enough. Let's get on it."


	3. A Crazy Old Fool and A Proposition to Save the World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonnie and John find Seth with an... unusual friend to introduce them to as well. It's absolute madness, no doubt. What other choice do they have, though? Seth's proposition is better than nothing, though, so their only choice is to accept and see how it goes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is another chapter based off a survivor mission in the game. This one is "Get Back In That Hole, Partner." Once again, all game information and everything else with the game belongs to Rockstar and other respective game creators. I'm just writing for the fun of it!

"Hold up, now," John eased the strange horse to a halt. The only indication it cared at all about the command was a soft snort as John slid easily off its back.

Bonnie slipped off her own horse, joining John as he carefully looked around. The mysterious fog seemed to hug the old cabin and creep around them from up the small hill the horses traversed with ease to bring them down here. "One hell of a ride," Bonnie muttered. John nodded in agreement before they both walked for the small porch-like area to the side of the cabin as the horses watched them with their strange eyes.

"Seth!" John called as they stepped onto the wooden boards, "Seth, you alright?"

The thin, strange grave robber sat by a barrel with a few cards in his dirt-stained hands. "Oh, hey there, John," he said without looking up. "Fancy a game of cards?"

Bonnie and John both stopped abruptly and the lingering stench of the undead, their gazes resting on the single freak of nature that stood with cards in his hand, dead, emotionless eyes rested on Seth."Not right this minute," John said, feeling an instinct make him lay a hand warily to the pistol in the holster on his hip.

Seth looked past his cards to the few that laid on the top of the barrel before looking up at the zombie looming with the occasional moan across from him. "You remember Moses, John?"

Moses, or... the undead Moses, let out what John could only describe as a demonic laugh or moan or groan of some sort and that was enough to finally make him draw his pistol, pushing Bonnie behind him. Surprisingly, Bonnie didn't protest and John felt her tense behind him as she laid a hand to her own gun.

Seth stood and held a hand up near the barrel of John's gun as he stepped between the former bounty hunter and the undead. "Easy! He's a bit more loyal now than he was before!" Seth said with a bit of a chuckle, stepping to the side to clear John's aim again. "Come here, boy!" Seth said, motioning towards himself as he looked at Moses, "Come on!"

The only response triggered from the upright corpse was a groan as it stood with its cards still held in its hands.

"Come here, boy!" Seth urged again, earning a bit of a louder groan from Moses. Seth shook his head slightly, "Oh...," he murmured, walking over and putting an arm around the shoulders of the zombie.

John holstered his gun majorly out of his inability to comprehend the situation and Bonnie resumed her position of standing beside him. "Exactly what are you doing... you crazy fool?" she asked.

"We were boyhood friends," Seth said, almost like he was very deeply in remorse of the situation. He shook his head a bit, his voice gaining another level of sorrow when he added, "Moses is goin' through a tough time right now." Like clockwork, however, Seth was back to his usual tone and looked over at his undead friend, "Ain't ya, pal?"

"What's goin' on?" John asked. He seriously doubted Seth would give him an answer that would make any sane sense, but... it was worth a shot.

"We're playin' cards!" Seth said as if it was entirely obvious. To his credit, it kind of was. But John didn't think any man who had even the dimmest memories of his sane mind would dare to play cards with the undead that now roamed the Earth. No man he knew of, at least. "Relax! Sit down!" Seth urged as he took his seat again and picked up his cards.

John nearly rolled his eyes and he shook his head, but Bonnie beat him to the barbed response he'd been about to give, "He's not talking about that, you damned crazy bastard!" she snapped. "We're talking about the undead walking the face of the Earth, if you haven't noticed!"

Seth shrugged, ignoring the blonde's insult. "That ain't nothin'," he said, his eyes not moving from his cards.

"Ain't nothin'?" John asked, a hint of a growl in his voice. Bonnie laid a hand against his shoulder in warning, but John ignored it. "I've seen husbands eating wives! Mothers eating sons!" he snapped, the strength of his gaze wavering for a moment when he thought of Abigail and Jack, "Grave's poppin' open and the undead risin' up," he continued, "It sure as shit is somethin'!"

"John," Bonnie warned softly. For a moment, John looked back at her, seeing gentle sympathy in her grey eyes. It stung cruelly to think of how he could so easily give in to that sympathy now and just as easily return it. It was something he was so unfamiliar with, only because he dared not allow himself to do it at the best of times. Those things were the things that could break him easily, and despite his attempt to avoid them, it looks like he couldn't avoid them anymore than he could've hoped to avoid Ross and Fordham when they'd sent him across the country and borders to find Bill and Javier.

"Aw, boo-hoo!" Seth shot back, throwing his cards down as he turned to look at John, "Tough John Marston is scared of a little undead creature walkin' around!" he snapped. He stood and went back to Moses's side as John turned his back on Seth, struggling to ignore how the comment put nails into his heart despite the innocence of not knowing what had happened. "Moses wouldn't hurt a fly! Would you, darling?"

Bonnie shook her head, disgusted with the sight before her. Not to mention the stench was revolting in itself. "You sick, crazy bastard!" she muttered, waving a hand at the crazy man before she turned her own back on the grave robber as John looked over his shoulder at the zombie with his freak of a friend.

"Besides," Seth added with a wave of his hand. Now they might be getting somewhere...

John turned back to face him. "Besides what, Seth?" he asked, forcing his mind back to the huge task him and Bonnie had somehow decided they'd take on.

"This ain't nothin' new," Seth said, waving his hand again in the direction of the way John and Bonnie had come.

John studied him for a moment. "Folks in Blackwater are blaming it on that glass eye you found," he said.

Seth balled his hands into fists as he shook his head, turning away from John a bit. "Folks!" he exclaimed, turning a different way now as if he couldn't decide which way would give him the right answer, "Folks! Folks! Damn them 'folks', John Marston! Damn them!" he exclaimed again with a little jump into the air as he shoved a finger in John's direction, "And damn _you_!" he added. He looked at Moses, "Get him!" he urged, "Get him, Moses! Get him!"

The only thing the undead did was give another one of his horrible moans.

"After all I've done for you, Seth," John muttered with a shake of his head. "And I thought loyalty was important to you?"

Seth looked at him, taking a few steps around Moses and closer to John. "You can't hurt me," he said, his voice low, "Moses, get him! Go!"

John took a partial step back, eyes trained on the zombie. "Yeah, get me, Moses," he said. When the only thing the zombie did was moan some more, John turned his disproving eyes to Seth. "Looks like your dogs lost his bite, Seth. Now what the hell's goin' on?"

In an instant, Seth seemed to accept the question. "The dead have risen!" Seth said with a smile as he tossed both hands into the air, "And a strange plague is turnin' people into... flesh-eatin'... crazies! What the hell you think's goin' on, genius?" he asked as he sat back down at the barrel.

"But why?" John persisted. By now, Bonnie had joined him again despite her best intentions to stay away from the deranged robber and undead figure.

"But why? Why?" Seth cried, one hand holding his cards and the other flicking almost dismissively in the air. "Why? Why? Why not? Why the _hell_ not?" he cackled, returning his eyes to the cards.

"Because it ain't natural," Bonnie offered, hands resting on her hips as she shot a glare at Seth before turning her eyes away from the near unsightly human being.

"Who made you Mother Nature and Mother Superior all at the same time?" Seth asked, clearly not caring who he was addressing and how he was doing it and tossing his cards down to the top of the barrel again as his gaze shifted from Bonnie to John and back before finally resting on John. "Who made you, John Marston?" he asked, standing and walking up to John.

The former bounty hunter pulled away from Seth. "Same as made me," Seth continued, "Same as made Moses!" he added as he walked back to indicate the zombie still standing with cards in hand.

"Is there a cure?" John asked, fighting harder and harder to resist the urge to just put a bullet through Seth's skull and Moses's face and be done with the trouble of both of them.

Seth grunted a bit, raising his hands in the beginning of a demonstrative gesture, "These things tend to... fade away," he said, motioning his hand up towards the sky and then towards the trees along the bottom of the hill on the other side of the cabin. "Now, if you wanna get rid of it, you should go clear the grave yards! Either that, or stop worryin' and become one of them!" he said, jerking a thumb in Moses's direction.

John shook his head and both him and Bonnie started to turn back for where they left the horses. "Now, if you'll excuse us," Seth said as he took his seat again, "We got... good times to remember, happy times!"

John looked over his shoulder. "Okay. See you soon then, Seth," he said before him and Bonnie then turned and mounted their horses again.

Bonnie waited until they were back on the trail and heading for the nearest grave yard, Coot's Chapel, before speaking, "You really think it'll be that easy?"

John sighed and shook his head as he urged the horses to a quicker pace, "To be honest... I don't know... But it's worth a shot."


End file.
